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leonr

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Everything posted by leonr

  1. Where is this market?? Is it open daily?? Thanks
  2. A junkie chef’s 3 star menu: The Clear Camel Piss Soup with boiled Earth Worms The Filet of Sun-Ripened Sting Ray basted with Eau de Cologne and garnished with nettles The After-Birth Supreme de Boeuf, cooked in drained crank case oil, served with a piquant sauce of rotten egg yolks and crushed bed bugs The Limburger Cheese sugar cured in diabetic urine doused in Canned Heat Flamboyant.... Created by everyone’s favorite and soon to be second most prolific (ex) junkie author, William Burroughs.
  3. Just spent the last five days at the Ritz and I would say that there really aren't a lot of dining options in the immediate vicinity. In the Isla Verde area we had lunch at the Metropol and dinner at Yamato, a japanese place in the Wyndham. The Metropol may not be as good as the posts intimate but it is at least a decent, popular place to have a meal. I can't speak about the Cuban authenticity but the food was fine, not great but definitely fine and the place was packed with what seemed like locals, including a lot of hotel employees. Yamato, the japanese place we ate at was similarly acceptable, not fine dining, but the sushi was good. I should note that on the weekend, and I need to stress the weekend in this time of year, the Wyndham on friday night was packed with people dressed to party and looking for a good time. The difference between the Wyndham and the Ritz and inter-continental, both in Isla Verde, is huge. The Wyndham was packed while the other places were not very crowded or interesting. A note on dining in general. On saturday night we went to the Condado area, it was totally dead. We stopped in a place I think called Urdin, extremely nice staff, but empty at 8pm. We had a reservation at Ramiro's across the street and the meal there was nice but it had an old stuffy vibe. Again the food was good, I had halibut which was very good and my girlfriend had a steak which was thick and cooked nicely but it was far from a happening place. I would definitely suggest someone staying in the Isla Verde area to spend the 16$ on a cab and head into Old San Juan. The area is relatively small, but there are several places that are happpening. We had a 'reservation' on friday night at dragonfly, a place owned by the same group who owns the Parrot Club and I think another place called Agua Viva. The reason I put quotations around reservation is that they take from you an estimated arrival time and they put you on a waiting list, when we showed they told us it would be an hour wait. We wandered across the street to the Parrot Club for a drink and looking at the menu were a little confused by the press the place has got, we didnt eat there so really cant speak about the food but the menu didn't blow us away. I should say that in general we weren't into the heavy local fare, preferring a lighter, more modern interpertation which is present in a some of the old San Juan places. We stoppped in Agua Viva and thought it was a great place. It had an ocean theme and had some great ceviches. Having spent some time travelling throughout latin america I find it hard to spend 12$ on ceviche, but compared to Chicama in Ny this place is a steal. We had a tuna and salmon ceviche as well as a spicy, I think tomato based, white fish ceviche. Anyway, after about 45 minutes we headed back to dragonfly and got in immediately. The dishes are tapas style, just a list of items, no distinction between appetizer and entree. The waiter told us three dishes would be more than enough so that's what we ordered. The food was mediocre at best. We had a mongolian beef dish, the beef so tough I would hesitate to serve it to my dog. I liked the spicy calamari but my girlfirend could barely tolerate the heat. Lastly, the tuna in spicy peppercorn sauce had an intolerably sweet sauce, though the fish itself was good. On Monday night we went back to Old San Juan, dead compared to Friday night, and had dinner at Amadeus. In my opinion the highlight of the trip. We had beef dumplings, ceviche and two fish dishes,all excellent. We drank by far the best margaritas we had on the trip, refreshing compared to the watered down version we had elsewhere. To summarize, Isla Verde doesn't offer much, Condado equally little. For my money I'd head to Old San Juan at least a few times. We didn't get to the more obscure places recommended on this site.
  4. I e-mailed on 22nd asking for a reservation between Apr30 and May4. Received this response. It came in spanish, english and french, just to be on the safe side. Have to try earlier next year.
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